Symphony RetailAI, the leading global provider of AI-enabled revenue growth management solutions and customer-centric insights for retailers and CPG manufacturers across the entire value chain, today kicked off the first of two Xcelerate Retail Forums with leading retailers and CPG manufacturers in Paris.
The annual conference brings together hundreds of FMCG industry leaders from around the world and initiates a rich exchange of ideas. Sessions explore how retailers can leverage new retail solutions and identify best practices to improve the speed and accuracy of customer insights, personalized marketing, supply chain processes and category management – all with an underlying emphasis on the critical role AI plays in driving growth and profit.
The event opened with a keynote from Symphony RetailAI’s Chairman and CEO Dr. Pallab Chatterjee, exploring how retailers today often miss opportunities to connect with a consumer that is increasingly connected, has access to more information, and expects businesses to react to their needs and wants instantly. This requires retailers to prioritize gathering and analyzing insights completely and efficiently. This helps them create the experiences that strengthen loyalty – which AI is uniquely positioned to address today. He was joined on stage by Sy Fahimi, SVP product strategy, who introduced CINDE, the industry’s very first AI-powered personal decision coach.
“We’re delighted to host this event for the fourth consecutive year,” said Chatterjee. “Retailers from across the world are here to discover unique perspectives and actionable recommendations from industry pioneers who are already using AI solutions. We’re particularly excited to have CINDE on stage with us and on full display in the Innovation Zone. CINDE is a game changer for retailers to identify, act and realize results for their business.”
Other Xcelerate highlights include a keynote from Alasdair James, non-executive board director, Symphony RetailAI and former CEO of Pier 1 who previously held multiple executive positions at Tesco. This session will detail the steps retailers and CPG manufacturers need to take to prepare for future market conditions, and how they can meet the needs of customers in an increasingly complex world. Attendees will hear from a worldwide mix of retail and CPG manufacturer executives and visionaries from: Carrefour France, Magnum Cash & Carry, Mercator, Musgrave, Pets at Home, REMA 1000, Samberi, Spar International, SpartanNash and Strategix CFT GmbH.
The theme of this year’s event, “Breathing AI-R into retail,” also features an inspirational guest keynote from the world champion free-diver Herbert Nitsch, who offers living proof that there is no limit to what you can achieve when optimizing your available resources achieve great things. With consumer expectations now elevated across all areas of retail, this presentation reinforces the concept that AI is the fresh ‘AI-R’ retailers need to stay ahead of the competition.
Conference delegates have the opportunity to network with peers on industry challenges and through a series of workshops and seminars and share their best practices to address them. In addition, they will hear directly from a host of Symphony RetailAI customers about how to generate success across the value chain. Finally, attendees will preview the next wave of innovations planned by the company.
“FMCG complexity is increasing – however, technology innovation is enabling great improvement in the way we serve our customers and how they serve theirs,” said Graeme Cooksley, President and COO, Symphony RetailAI. “Every day, we apply our decades of experience of solving major challenges in our industry to addressing the current disruption that faces FMCG retailers and manufacturers. Through our relationships with some of the world’s largest and most innovative firms, we collectively push the boundaries of what is possible. Xcelerate is the place where we see this in person, with real success stories, presented by those who have made them happen.”
Xcelerate Dallas will take place Oct. 8 and 9 and feature industry speakers from Albertsons, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Campbell Foods, Giant Eagle, Heinens, K-VA-T Food Stores, Link Snack (Jack Link’s), Topco Associates and Tyson Foods. Freediver Tanya Streeter will also be on hand to deliver a keynote.
The agenda has something for all practitioners in FMCG retail with topics including:
- AI-enabled personal decision coaches
- Improving efficacy of the grocery supply chain
- Artificial intelligence and demand forecasting
- Next-generation category space planning
- Strengthening the role of category captains for CPGs
- Improved partnering between CPGs and retailer partners
- Using AI to move from data insights to action and realization of targeted results
- Efficiencies in store operations
- Personalized marketing and understanding shopper behavior
- Robotics in the warehouse
- Intelligent store clustering and space planning
- Inventory management
- Click & Collect
- Virtual reality and augmented reality’s role in delivering the intelligent shelf
CINDE, your unfair advantage
In addition to exploring industry-leading technologies from Symphony RetailAI and solution partners in the Innovation Zone, attendees have the unique opportunity to interact with CINDE, Symphony RetailAI’s conversational, AI-enabled personal decision coach (the first-of-its-kind platform designed specifically for retail). As AI becomes increasingly prevalent and critical for business success, CINDE goes beyond identifying insights. She helps decision makers understand and adopt prescriptive recommendations through immersive engagement with natural language push intelligence and context-sensitive visualizations.
Since 2016, the Xcelerate Retail Forum has drawn nearly 1,000 grocery retailers and CPG company representatives from across the globe. Watch highlight videos from previous Xcelerate events. To find out more about both Xcelerate 2019 events or to register to attend Xcelerate Dallas, please visit the Xcelerate 2019 website.
